UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For research faculty, the impact of their findings is often measured by which journals accept their research and how many other researchers cite their work. That impact is a steady stream measured over time.
When a faculty member’s research is cited in a textbook, however, it can impact thousands of students. That impact is a splash measured in waves.
Four Penn State Smeal College of Business management and organization faculty members are among the top 1 percent of all management professors cited in textbooks, according to research published in the Academy of Management Learning and Education.
The four faculty members are:
Donald C. Hambrick, Evan Pugh University Professor and Smeal Chaired Professor of Management
- 10th most cited in strategic management textbooks
Linda K. Trevino, distinguished professor of organizational behavior and ethics
- 13th most cited in general management textbooks
- 26th most cited in organizational behavior textbooks
Charles C. Snow, professor emeritus of business administration
- 43rd most cited in general management textbooks
Stephen E. Humphrey, Alvin H. Clemens Professor of Management
- 99th most cited in organizational behavior textbooks
“When it comes to the impact of academic research, we generally talk about impact on other researchers (i.e., we count the number of citations to the researcher’s work in others’ research),” said Vilmos Misangyi, professor of strategic management, BNY Mellon Fellow, and chair of the Department of Management and Organization at Smeal.
“But this article thinks about impact differently. It examines how academics’ research impacts a very different audience — college students — by counting how much their research is cited in textbooks.”
Misangyi said that the four faculty members that are cited each demonstrate an ability to have a dual impact.
“These academics create quality research that isn’t just solid ‘basic science,’ because they are also highly cited by other researchers,” he said.
“Their work is also seen as being directly relevant to the practice of management (i.e., applied science) and should therefore be conveyed to students through textbooks," added Misangyi. "This kind of impact has great potential to influence practice as students go out into the world of management.”